Under the Microscope

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A king cobra bite -- and a scientific discovery

A king cobra has enough venom to kill 10 people in a single bite. Recounting his near-death experience after being bitten by one of these majestic yet deadly snakes, conservationist and TED Fellow Gowri Shankar shares the epiphany he had when the antivenom failed: there's more than one unique species of king cobra.

This is ultimately a story about snake taxonomy and conservation, but it has a really effective hook to capture the viewers interest. Communicating species-level taxonomy is not usually captivating for the lay public, but this talk uses storytelling and its narrative structure to communicate some important scientific information.

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Peter Kolchinsky on Twitter

“While not technically alive, there's an evil genius to viruses that never ceases to amaze me. It's one reason I became a virologist. A recent Nature paper reveal a remarkable trick SARS-Cov-2 learned that makes it nastier than the first SARS. Both viruses…”

Take a moment to look at this thread and think about how the author communicates the science behind the SARS COV2 virus. Look at his use of analogies and word choice to make this more accessible. He did a great job for such an abbreviated format. #B4272 #Science Communication

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Everyone Thinks They’re Right About Masks

How the coronavirus travels through the air has become one of the most divisive debates in this pandemic.

A burning question these days.

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Scientists: lose the jargon, or you'll lose readers, says communications prof | CBC Radio

A new study finds that when people encounter scientific jargon they tune out — and even worse, it often kills their interest in science.

“An in-depth, analytical foray into the factors mitigating cognitive uptake of scientific concepts by a non-specialist audience when delivered by scientists using field-appropriate language”. Or, “Scientists: lose the jargon or you’ll lose readers.”

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Top tips for getting your science out there

Craig Cormick explains how scientists can get their arguments across to members of the public.

As we talked about in class: Know your audience, tell a story. 

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Drug makers signal interest in exiting vaccine development during crises

Nearly all the major pharmaceutical companies that work on these vaccines have found themselves holding the bag after at least one recent outbreak.

Remember H1N1, that influenza strain that threatened to sweep across the globe to challenge naive immune systems of millions, if not billions of people? I remember the vaccine that was rapidly developed and given to millions across Canada in school gymnasiums, hospitals and doctors offices. Myself and my neighbours dragged our kids to the school and waited in line for the inoculation, but only for the kids though as they were rationing the vaccine. I was impressed that within a few months of identifying a potential pandemic threat we could have mass produced a vaccine to protect the population. With the new coronavirus now emerging, we are again on that cycle. But, who bares the cost of this production? It turns out that it’s more complicated than first thought but “BigPharma” has certainly stepped up to assist with these public health emergencies.

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And, they’re off....

Follow these student blogs as they explore different science topics throughout the term. Feel free to join in the discussion!

  https://mulhollands-microscope.tumblr.com/

https://bri-rob.tumblr.com/

https://viralovector.tumblr.com/

https://brookestew.tumblr.com/

https://badmonkevin.tumblr.com/

https://patrickmccoolbio.tumblr.com/

https://jayqualyn.tumblr.com/

https://lsamimi.tumblr.com/

https://jyan-biochem.tumblr.com/

https://thab011.tumblr.com/

https://jenwan.tumblr.com/

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Welcome to BIOL4272, a science communication course at the University of New Brunswick. In this course, students pick topics of special interest to them and write blog posts in different formats. We’ll be using the hashtag #B4272 for those that want to follow along and explore the interests of the students enrolled in the class.

[theflylady-blog]

Carrier

Your fate is sealed a fatal message written in every cell of your starving body you lack the breath to read it

Gasping to claim the air you have been denied your entire life

Artificial oxygen Attempts to soothe the damage In lungs plagued for years By your own genetics

Handed to you by sinister hands the moment your existence was sealed by disease

Breathe just one more time My every guilty cell begs Being spared your Hell Has tortured me since your first labored breath

As I watch your chest struggle to fall I feel in my breast An ironic inability to breathe As I think of how to say goodbye 

Yesterday, while talking about poetry in class, I remembered this poem I wrote over a year ago. I wrote this when my sister (who has cystic fibrosis) was in the hospital with pneumonia and we didn’t know if she would survive. I often write poetry as a way of dealing with things. It isn’t exactly CRISPR/Cas9 based but I thought I would share it. As the course this blog was made for draws to a close I have chosen to continue this blog. I will be focusing on more genetic tools and achievements (not just CRISPR), as well as genetic diseases like cystic fibrosis. I hope you’ll stay with me!

Yours in science theFlyLady

[babarfaridi-blog]

I took some inspiration from one of my favourite YouTube series and this is what I came up with. Enjoy! 

You can read the actual paper here.

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Brilliant!

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How Scientists Are Learning to Write

"That's jargon-ish. Even some people in the sciences don't have an intuitive understanding of what that means."

Knowing how to communicate effectively is important, regardless of what career path you choose.

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Effective Communication, Better Science | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network

"Public communication encourages scientists to think about the big picture. For instance, scientists can get bogged down with the specifics of a research question or use too much jargon to explain a concept. Public communication encourages scientists to find simple, more succinct ways to get the essentials of their message across. Why does/should it matter to your audience? Why is it important?"

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If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough,

Albert Einstein 

[lotsofspaceforbiology-blog]

Cyanomeal

If this were a thing:

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Eerie fluorescent blue patches of water glimmering off Hong Kong's seashore are magnificent, disturbing and potentially harmful to marine life, biologists say.

The only time microalgae make the news-- toxic dinoflagellate blooms.

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This Bizarre Organism Builds Itself a New Genome Every Time It Has Sex | WIRED

Imagine having cells with two nuclei, but not only two nuclei— two nuclei with structurally distinct genomes. There are plenty of examples of cells with multiple nuclei, but ciliates have functionally specialized nuclei called the macronucleus and micronucleus. The macronucleus is the workhorse "somatic" nucleus that is transcriptionally active, often highly polyploid and supporting the entire cell. Oddly, the macronucleus is "amitotic", meaning that it doesn't have a great way of segregating its chromosomes during cell division. This is why the polyploidy seems to be important, to make sure that each daughter cell gets a full complement of genes during division (asexual reproduction). 

The micronucleus is the shy, diploid cousin, sitting in the corner—transcriptionally inactive — just biding time until its moment in the sun. This micronucleus is the hope chest of sexual reproduction that contains genes to be exchanged with its partner. In the ciliate Oxytricha, how it does this is rather remarkable, as described in the linked blog post by Greg Miller.

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Five Things Being A Zumba Instructor Has Taught Me About Science Communication | PsySociety, Scientific American Blog Network

Lessons in science communication from unexpected activities— zumba instruction. I like her approach to using Facebook to communicate science and starting conversations with lay persons.